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Industrial environments

Power supplies

Powering industrial control devices tends to be more complex than powering network devices intended for home, office, and data centre use. The power supplied to or used at industrial sites is widely different and can be 230VAC single-phase, 400VAC triple-phase of AC current or 24 or 48VDC of DC current.

Industrial power may be three-phase power, which is used for power transmission across power grids and is favoured for large motors and heavy loads at industrial sites. It’s also frequently “dirty” power, subject to noise, voltage fluctuations, and spikes. This inconsistent power is hard on the electronic components in industrial devices and can cause equipment damage or data loss.

Because of this variability, industrial control devices are either sold entirely separately from their power supply or are available with a choice of power supplies. Unlike ordinary networking devices, industrial controls require you to choose the correct power supply for both device and application.

Power input

Industrial power supplies must be matched to both the type of power input they’ll be receiving from the power grid and the power output they’ll be expected to provide to the industrial control device.

Although power input is often ordinary 230VAC standard European power, industrial power supplies may be expected to accept AC power that ranges lower or higher and may be single-phase or three-phase. DC power may also be available and may include 24VDC and 48VDC.

Many industrial power supplies offer a universal input that will accept power across a wide range, typically 85 – 264VAC, and 120–370VDC. This not only makes them adaptable to many different power sources, but provides them with the resilience to withstand large fluctuations in power input while still providing stable, reliable power output.

Output

On the output side, industrial power generally supplies 12VDC, 24VDC, or 48VDC power to the device side. Most industrial control devices in North America and Europe take 24VDC power.

Industrial power supplies typically have screw or spring-clamp terminal blocks for power connections.